RE: Osama, Saddam and the Ports

Finding myself on the same side of this as Paul Krugman is just as uncomfortable for me as being on Ann Coulter's side is for Strother. I expect that Coulter and Krugman are very uncomfortable. There is one important difference, though. Krugman has a documented history of twisting the truth and outright lying. While Ann won't hesitate to throw a rhetorical bomb, even some that are completely inappropriate, she never lies.

However, Krugman seems to have most of it right. One notable exception:

...which is part of the authoritarian United Arab Emirates, one of only three countries that recognized the Taliban as the legitimate ruler of Afghanistan.

At the time, the Taliban was the legitimate ruler of Afghanistan and the UAE recognized them because we asked them to. There is no way to know how anxious they would have been to do it on their own. But, as I have said all along, this isn't about Dubai. It doesn't matter which country it is, we have no business handing over management of our ports to a foreign government.